The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern

Harold confides to Augusta that though Irving appears cheerful, he has experienced hardship in his life. At the grocery store, Augusta remembers that Irving likes Oh Henry! candy bars, so she buys two. When she takes them to his apartment, she sees that he has a guest, Vera, who is making him dinner. Augusta feels hurt and questions her decision to let her guard down with him. 

The next day, in the pool, Augusta runs into Nathaniel Birnbaum, a friend from her youth. Shirley jokes that he is the most eligible bachelor at Rallentando Springs after his wife, Evie, Augusta’s friend, passed away. Shirley reveals that there is some sort of feud going on between Nathaniel and Irving and confirms that Vera is trying to be Irving’s girlfriend. Later, Nathaniel invites Augusta to a concert.

Augusta believes that Esther’s soup helped Irving recover. She also wonders if there might have been something that could have cured her mother and prevented her death. 

Harriet Dornbrush, the wife of a traveling shoe salesman, is distressed that she cannot have a child. She comes to Solomon, begging him to give her arsenic, and he refuses. Augusta betrays her father’s confidence to ask

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